Burnt Cape. Note the obvious sedimentary layers. [Foreground and middleground]
Catoche Formation. Lower Ordovician (ca. 480-475 million years old). [Background] Table Head Formation. Middle
Ordovician (ca. 470-460 million years old). Photo: Dan/Pat Montague.
[CLICK image to enlarge.]
While the Long Range Mountains of the Great Northern Peninsula are the result of the ancient mountain-building
event that produced the great Appalachian Mountain chain, the somewhat younger rock of the Limestone Barrens
was once the floor of a shallow tropical sea.
For millions of years, the shells of dead marine organisms piled
up on that sea floor and solidified into limestone and dolomite.
This is also why the rocks of the barrens are so full of fossils, mostly gastropods, trilobites and cephalopods.
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